The Week In Trans 7/13/20

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Valentina Sampaio

Valentina Sampaio, who was announced some time ago as the first transgender model for Victoria’s Secret, has now become the first transgender model to appear in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The swimsuit edition is late in coming out this year, as E! Online noted in its story.

An appeals court for the state of Oregon ruled that the state must add a non-binary gender option along side “male” or “female.” KATU-TV has this story.

MasterCard has decided to extend their True Name card service to Europe. This service became available in the U.S. last year. Finextra has this story.

The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF), the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), Transgender Law Center (TLC), the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI) of Harvard Law School, and law firm Hogan Lovells have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts against the Trump-Pence administration’s rule, released June 19, 2020, that undermines the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) non-discrimination protections. For more information visit the TLDEF website.

Bree Breon was found shot to death in Pompano Beach, Florida. In St. Helena Parish, Louisiana, Shaki Peters was killed. Both of these black transgender women were misgendered in initial police reports. Both of their deaths are being investigated as homicides. Another black transgender woman, Draya McCarty of Hammond, Louisiana, was found dead, but police have not yet declared her death a homicide. The Advocate has a story about all three of these deaths. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

The number of transgender people killed is higher than in any previous year, according to the Human Rights Campaign. This story can be found in USA Today.

Dawn Manson, found safe.

A transgender woman named Dawn Manson was reported missing in the Pittsburgh area this week. Happily she was found. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has this story.

Police in Arkansas arrested a suspect in the murder of Brayla Stone, according to a story in The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Lawyers for C. Jay Smith say that she was set-up after filing a sexual abuse claim. The transgender woman, who is a prisoner at San Quentin, has been the target of harassment and lewd sexual acts, as well as charges that she violated various prison rules. NBC News has this story.

A non-binary person protesting with Black Lives Matter in Seattle was hit by a car and killed. Another protestor remains in the hospital as a result of the same incident. This story can be found in Pink News.

Mother House, a shelter for homeless people in Boulder, Colorado, is opening The Lodge, a new unit for women, transgender people, and non-binary people. The Daily Camera has this story.

Two Supreme Court decisions this week expand religious exemptions to civil rights laws. The Advocate points out that these decisions can have effects on other rights of LGBTQ employees.

Nicole Maines

Nicole Maines said in a recent interview how lucky and blessed she was to have a family that understands and allowed her to transition so young. You can read about it at People magazine.

RadioWest had a program on gender identity and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Callaly, a brand which specializes in products for menstruation, has launched a new campaign to let people know that not everyone who menstruates is a woman. Forbes has a story on this campaign.

A new study shows that only 3% of sexually-active transgender people use PrEP to avoid getting HIV. The exposure rate among transgender people is very high, according to Out & About Nashville.

New Times San Luis Obispo has an article about the importance of speech therapy for transgender women.

The United States Human Rights Council came out with a statement opposing rules which force cisgender athletes to take medication or have surgery in order to counteract the natural hormonal output of their bodies. This story can be found in LGBTQ Nation.

Halle Berry announced last week that she intended to play a transgender man in a movie, although she referred to the character with female pronouns. After some public outcry, Ms. Berry announced that she would not participate in that movie. Variety has this story. Thanks to Alyssa Washington for a link to this story.

Kai Shappley

Kai Shappley has been cast in a new Netflix series, The Babysitter’s Club. Four years ago, Kai was involved in a fight over which restroom a transgender student could use in her grade school. This story appears on Click2Houston.

Tom Hosford is a finalist in the BAFTA 2020 Young Game Designers competition. The game is called Family Dinner, and the user plays the part of a closeted trans male teenager. Relatives keep giving their bigoted opinions during the meal. BAFTA has a link to download the game.

Kim Petras has joined MTV, Logo, and Trans Lifeline to promote a new program that will pay for some young people to get ID that will allow them to vote in their real gender. People magazine has this story.

The creators of Godzilla have released a new short film, showing that he has a transgender child. Godzilla is a good parent, and accepts this transgender child. You can find a link at LGBTQ Nation.

Saff from Tiger King appears in a new ad for a personal injury lawyer. In the ad, he talks about losing his arm, and says, “Your injuries are permanent, and lifelong. Your job is not.” LGBTQ Nation has this story.

The Advocate says that Transparent should get not only an Emmy award, but also a Nobel Prize. (Sorry, there is no Nobel Prize for musicals.)

Dakota as Gemini Dai.

Dakota Payne won a drag contest specifically for stars of gay porn. Out.com has this story.

There is a list of 6 movies and television shows about the ballroom culture, including Pose, on Out.com.

Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, joined Stephen King in saying trans women are women and trans men are men. The Independent has this story.

J.K. Rowling, Margaret Atwood, and 149 other people, signed an open letter entitled “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate.” The letter, signed by people from many points on the political spectrum, is about free speech and the open exchange of ideas. It has a bit of a feel because J.K. Rowling is involved in a debate over transgender rights, and is giving some false information in that debate. You can read about it in Pink News.

Juno Dawson writes in Time magazine that the argument over transgender rights distract from real problems that women–transgender and cisgender–face today.

Gillian Philip was dropped by her publisher after adding, “I stand with JK Rowling,” to her Twitter handle. Pink News has this story.

More than 100 parents, mostly mothers, expressed their support for their transgender children. This came after J.K. Rowling called hormone therapy for transgender youth “a new form of conversion therapy.” You can see their statements on Mermaids.

Juno Roche

Juno Roche has released a new book, called Gender Explorers. In the book, she tells the stories of young transgender people who bravely became themselves. Pink News has an excerpt.

The Netherlands has announced that their identity cards will not contain a gender in five years. This caught the attention of Forbes.

The Dutch are hoping to add LGBTQ protections to their constitution. A bill to add “sexual orientation and disability” to the list of protections against discrimination passed in the lower house of the parliament, 124-26. By law, protection against discrimination on the basis of “sex” includes protection for transgender and intersex individuals. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

A large demonstration in Parliament Square in London protested against the government’s desire to use the reform of the Gender Recognition Act to undo rights for transgender people. Pink News has a report on the peaceful event.

A new survey shows that 57% of women in the U.K. support allowing transgender people to self-identify their gender, even if that allows them to get into single-sex spaces. While this is down from previous surveys, it is still rather substantial, as Pink News reports.

The BBC just quietly removed all four of the charities it used to list under “Information and Support: Gender Identity.” That webpage now has no resources. Pink News has this story.

Leonie Dorado

Leonie Dorado is the first transgender newscaster in the history of Bolivia. She is profiled in The Advocate.

While Bolivians can watch a transgender woman deliver the news, in Russia, Vladimir Putin is complaining that a brand of ice cream with rainbow colors is gay “propaganda” and should be “managed.” LGBTQ Nation has this story.

Kazakhstan is using the current virus pandemic as a reason to roll back rights for LGBTQ people, especially transgender people. Inter Press Service has this story.

Norway has announced that it plans to give priority to LGBT refugees, according to a report in EuroNews.

Fortune has an excerpt from a new book about the real women of Paris. One of them is a transgender woman.

An Irish farmer who is finally transitioning at age 65 is profiled in The Irish Times.

BBC News has a feature that covers travel. Last week they included a short story about traveling as a transgender woman.

When an article entitled “Responding Responsibly As Parents Of Transgender Children” appears in The National Catholic Register, is is likely transgender people will have concerns about what might be in the article. However, this one recommends being present to reality, listening with openness, and responding with love.

TWITs

J.K. Rowling does not know when she has lost. She sent out some additional tweets on gender, advancing bad science. In one of them, she called giving young people access to hormone therapy “a new form of conversion therapy for young gay people.” She continues to think that allowing minors access to hormones somehow convinces them to become transgender, when in fact they have to demonstrate a transgender nature in order to access the hormones. She also persists in the belief that transgender people are gay people who have a deep-set homophobia, a belief which is not supported by data. For speaking from ignorance, J.K. Rowling gets another TWIT Award. Newsday has this story.

The Blaze wrote its own news story about Kai Shappley being cast in a Netflix series. While they tried to make the tone seem matter-of-fact, they went out of their way to deadname Kai, and deliberately used the wrong pronoun. For journalistic malpractice, The Blaze gets a TWIT Award.

Abigail Shrier wrote a book called Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. The book agrees with Lisa Littman’s research, saying that transgender male teenagers are actually a phenomenon of social media and self-delusion. Amazon refused to advertise the book, which caused the Christian Broadcasting Network to criticize Amazon and The Federalist to heap praise on the book. The book is badly researched, and like Dr. Littman’s study, assumes what the parents report seeing is an accurate reflection of what is going on inside the minds of their children. For bad research, bad science, and bad medicine, Abigail Shrier and her supporters at CBN and The Federalist get a TWIT Award.

TWIT is assembled by Cecilia Barzyk with additional content and editing by Angela Gardner. Care to make a comment on this post? Login here and use the comment area below.

Tags: featured, Kim Petras, news, Nicole Maines, Transgender, TWIT, Valentina Sampaio

Category: Transgender Community News